Roe
by RoseRedGurl
Summary: Olivia Roe always thought she was alone in the world she lived in. She thought she was the only one who was different. All she ever wanted was to find people that knew what it was like, what if felt like not to be normal. (Takes place during X2 era)
1. Chapter 1

_ My parents were killed in a war that I was too young to understand._

When you're young, you don't think about the consequences of any actions that you make. Because, well, when you're young, there aren't really any consequences. You fumble but mom and dad would be there to pick you up and things would get better and the miscellaneous deed would be forgotten. So when you're young, you don't realize that even the smallest of secrets, the most insignificant seeming details could have to biggest ramifications.

Olivia was born with great powers. One kept the other at bay, only because it took so much energy just dealing with the first one. The biggest power. Olivia was a telepath, she could read minds. Not the biggest job most telepaths have but it was hers. And it seriously did take its toll on her.

Her parents never saw the signs that their baby girl was a mutant. She looked normal, she acted normal, for the most part. It wasn't until she was seven that the signs started showing. When she was seven, Olivia had gotten into trouble for hitting a boy at the monkey bars. She swore up and down that he had called her names, but no one had heard him say it.

It kept on happening. Soon, Olivia was suspended from school for starting a fight with another child. Same principals; Olivia had claimed that the person had called her names and she was going to defend herself. As this went on, Olivia started to worry. She felt like there was no one on her side. There was no one who cared about what was happening to her.

One night, Olivia overheard her parents talking in the living room.

"We need to help her, Alice," her father said, "it's getting worse."

Her mother nodded her head, "I know, Caleb, I know. But how? We don't have any resources."

The two were quiet for a moment.

"What are you thinking Alice?"

She let out a breath, "The Xavier School. They know how to help her. Our powers are nothing like hers will be. She static shocks me every time we hug. And the voices? This is power. Serious power and it needs to be controlled."

Olivia ran back into her room and quietly shut the door. She hated that word, control. They all wanted to control her, not help her. Her parents wanted to control the power, the school wanted to control her behavior. The Xavier School… she had heard her mother speak about it a few times. It was never to her face, just to her father. Always talking about how much they helped.

The only consequences Olivia knew were the ones given to her by the school. Time outs and no recess and suspension. But what they had done is cause her parents to consider sending her away. And behind separated from her parents was one of her worst fears.

When Olivia had come back, she tried to stay away from everyone. She didn't want to get into anymore trouble. It wasn't that hard. She had become the scary first grader and no one wanted to play with her. No one wanted to talk to her. She was weird and she was weeded out because of it.

One day, Barry, the boy she had hit, decided that he would be the brave one. He went up to Olivia, while they were all at recess. He sat down next to her.

"How did you know?" Barry asked her.

"Go away Barry." Olivia told him.

"Come on, tell me. I never said it out loud."

Olivia let out a sigh, "I read your mind Barry."

That caused the small boy to start laughing. Olivia didn't like to be laughed at so she pushed him and walked away. Thankfully no one saw Olivia do that and soon the day ended and Olivia was able to go home. She felt safe there. Inside those walls nothing and no one could get her. No one could laugh at her. No one could hurt her and her parents made sure of it.

Too bad happiness doesn't always last.

The seemingly insignificant slip of detail to Barry caused a big problem. He had remembered and went home and told his parents. He told them that the girl who had beaten him up could read minds. Since the "mutant problem" was only talked about in whispers and behind closed doors, the parents told Barry not to speak about it anymore.

His father was a military man. He worked for the government and it was his duty to report and mutant activity to his superiors. And he did. He relayed to them what information he had been feed by his son. A telepath was living in their community. A telepath with a violence problem. He was told the issue would be dealt with and that he should return to his home and family.

And boy was the issue dealt with. Because Barry's father never said anything about the violent telepath being a child, the team went to take care of things were looking for an adult. They went to the address they were given and took care of what needed taking care of. Both mutant parents lay dead in their home and the child was taken into child services.

The murder of her parents left Olivia a little unbalanced. The voices in her head got louder, significantly louder. The negativity in her heart got significantly heavier. The only thing that kept her even remotely calm was painting. But she didn't get to do so very often. She was always busy keeping people away from her or holding herself together.

When she was 16, Olivia left the orphan home in pursuit of something greater. There had to be answers out there. There had to be life out in the world and she was going to find it. Things didn't really go to plan. Olivia was attacked just outside of New York and left in a ditch to die.

XMEN

One of the many great things about Charles Xavier is that he cared about every mutant. He had opened his home as a school for hundreds of them, so they had a place to learn about themselves and live in a safe environment. The man was constantly making sure that as many were being help as possible.

He had felt that there was something… off. There was someone, just outside state lines. He could feel power and he could feel fear. A mutant was in need and he was going to help them. Xavier went to Cerebro to get a lock on the mutant's location. It was a young girl.

Charles went Storm and Jean to get the girl. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too late.


	2. Chapter 2

_Mutants. Since the discover of their existence, they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages. Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain or simply a new species of humanity, fighting for their share of the world? Either way, it is in historical fact sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute._

XMEN

_Storm and Jean had found Olivia just in time and brought her back to the professor. He asked them to help bring her down below so none of the other students would see her. In the condition that she was in, it could do a lot of damage to see a fellow mutant in such a way. It didn't stop a few from seeing her. One of which was Peter Rasputin. He watched as his teachers carried the girl away into secret._

_Once out of sight from the students, the three were able to discuss what was going on._

_"Professor, who is she?" Jean Grey asked._

_"Her name is Olivia Roe. She is a mutant. A telepath with the ability to create and sustain electricity." Xavier told the two._

_Storm asked, "Is she dangerous?"_

_"No."_

_Jean didn't understand. If she wasn't dangerous then why was she in such a condition? "What happened to her?"_

_"In this world, there are good people and there are bad people. Sometimes, it is easier for the bad to find you."_

_Just then, Olivia began screaming. Her body began thrashing around. "Hold her down." Charles told the women. He knew what it was. He could feel her fear. He could see her mind. "We have to wait for it to pass." The screaming went on for a few moments. And then, when it stopped, Charles told Storm to go upstairs and check on the students._

_"What's wrong with her?" Jean asked._

_"She's been through a very long and traumatic ordeal." Charles said._

_Jean looked down at the girl. She was so young and so beautiful, behind the cuts and bruises. The most a girl her age should be upset with is someone wearing the same t-shirt as her or the boy she likes not asking her to homecoming or prom. No one her age should know what the definition trauma is, nor have any experience that could be classified as traumatic._

_"What happened to her?" There was a tear in Jean's eye._

_"She was born with powers she never understood. Her parents were killed and she blames herself. She had to shun away everyone so they wouldn't get hurt because of her and so the voices in her head wouldn't be too loud. And when she was finally able to get out of there, she barely made it into New York and was attacked."_

_"Was it Magneto?"_

_Charles was silent and looked into her mind._

_"No," he said, "No mutant did this. Jean, I want you to keep an eye on her. You two have more in common than you think. You can teach her to control her telepathy. It will make it easier on her mind. The other power would be able to come in more gracefully."_

_Jean nodded her head._

_"Of course professor."_

XMEN

Olivia's adjustment to life at the Xavier school was an interesting one. The kids around her, they were… well kids. They looked normal, most of them. It was like an actual boarding school. Olivia expected it to be something glorious. Like some kind of castle in the sky with magic and whatnot. Then again, those were the thoughts of a seven year old.

Bobby Drake had been the first person to speak to Olivia. He hadn't seen her brought in but he did see someone taken somewhere secret. The first day she had been out of her room was a week after she had arrived at the Xavier school. She was groggy and wanted a shower. She'd decided she would try to find the bathroom. It seemed that Bobby was waiting for her door to open.

"Hi, I'm Bobby." Something innocent but his thoughts were loud.

Olivia tried to push past it.

"Hi. Do you know the bathroom is?" She asked.

_No name? Why does she need the bathroom? Has she been here a week and not been to the bathroom?_

_I thought girls were more hygienic than that. I wonder where she's from._

"Dude! Chill out with the third degree. Bathroom. Please."

Bobby pointed to the left side of the corridor they were in.

"Down the hall, take a left, and it's the first door on your right."

Olivia hurried down the hall and into the bathroom.

_How could one person have so many thoughts?_ She wondered.

The noise from the running water was enough to keep everything else out. It was nice. The water was warm and it didn't hurt. The beads of water poured through her hair and over her body. She hadn't had a shower to herself in ages. It was the best feeling ever, just to have a little privacy.

When Olivia returned to her room, she was greeted with something that made her smile. Across from her bed there was an easel with a piece of blank canvas on it. There was more on her bed. On the desk were different color paints and a cup full of different sized brushes. She noticed a sticky note on the canvas on her bad.

On it read, _I heard you liked to paint_, on it.

XMEN

To say Jean hovered as a bit of an understatement in the same way that it was a bit of an overstatement. She felt particularly protective over the girl. They had a sort of… connection and that was new for Jean. Not that she didn't connect with people; just not with many people so when she did, it was a big deal. Olivia was a telepath that needed help blocking out the other voices. Jean was helping her.

Because the voices were always scrambled around in her head, Olivia couldn't be around anyone. She wasn't able to learn because she was able to concentrate on the one voice speaking. And that was a bit frustrating. So Jean would go to Olivia's room everyday. They would work and work and work. At first, Jean thought it was going to be extra difficult because of the certain blocks in her mind.

Instead, the thoughts were there. And many of the thoughts there were about Scott. Olivia thought they were cute, but didn't need to know how intimate they were. Other days, there were thoughts about someone named Logan. Now, those thoughts made Olivia want to slap everyone and everything.

Sometimes she would yell at Jean, "Dammit woman! Boyfriend or the hot buff guy. I cannot handle thoughts about both! Pick!"

Jean would just laugh, "If you don't like them, then block them out."

"I don't know how."

Jean took the girl's face in her hands, "Then you find away. Find something to focus on."

Olivia pushed her hands off.

"I don't want to have to focus on something to keep voices out. I just want them out period!"

"Well it's not gonna happen like that." Jean told her. "You're going to have to practice. And once you practice, you're gonna have to practice some more. You practice and you practice and you practice. The mind is a difficult thing to train."

Olivia sighed.

"So let's try one more time." Jean suggested.

There was an image that came into Jean's head. And because it was so horrible, it nearly made Olivia cry. But now wasn't the time for that. She tried to block it out. She looked all over her room, searching for something to focus on. There was her easel. The paints were out. She stood up and walked over to them. Then she started to paint, with a thin brush. Outlining something in black and then got two fat brushes.

She's painted a tree. When she was done, she turned to look at Jean but she wasn't there. Had she left? Olivia went to the closed door and opened it. Jean was right outside of it, smiling.

"What happened?" Olivia asked.

"You blocked it out."

"But all I did was paint."

Jean nodded, "Painting calms you down. Art is your… medium. It's your safe space. When the thoughts get too loud, paint them into another place. I'll go get you some lunch."

As Jean disappeared, Bobby appeared.

"Hey, shower girl." The crude name caused Olivia's eyes to widen.

_Uh oh. She's pissed._

"Well you did just call me shower girl."

"Okay mind reader-"

"Seven, Purple, and no. I don't like ducks."

Bobby was in awe.

Olivia smiled, "Thoughts happen faster than words. That's why I was a little rude the other day and why I can't be around people. It's overwhelming."

"That seems kind of lonely."

Olivia shrugged, "I'm working on it. I'm Olivia by the way."

She stuck out her hand. Bobby stuck out his, "Bobby."

XMEN

Olivia had been at the Xavier school for a few months now. And in those few months, she had gotten a hell of a lot better at controlling the voices. She was able to focus on ones she wanted to hear, if the moment called for it. She was able to always turn them off. She had learned some control. The control came from focusing on something so hard; she sometimes felt that she would pop a vein.

With this new found control, Olivia was able to socialize. She was able to come out of her room and attend a couple of classes a day, instead of doing all of her learning by herself in her room. She was able to outside of her room and eat lunch. Usually, Bobby and Rogue and John would come and sit with her. The four had become good friends. It was nice to actually have some for a change.

There was a room Olivia would walk past everyday. The door was always open and there was always a boy in there, sketching. After sometime of just passing by, she would stop at watch. She would watch the muscles in his back move, she would watch his arm and hand float across the paper, sketching beautiful pictures.

There were three times that Olivia knew that the boy knew she was watching him sketch. The first time, he had heard feet stop outside of his door. It was pretty obvious that someone was outside of his room, watching him. Because he didn't want to break his concentration more, by turning around, he would think something silly. It got a giggle out of Olivia.

The second time, he almost caught her staring. Olivia had stopped at his room to watch him, she had done so quietly. He hadn't heard her walk up. There was, however, a part of the floor that- if you put enough weight on it- it would squeak. She didn't realize that she was leaning on it, Olivia shifted her weight and there was a loud squeak. After a moment of wide eyes, she spun around and hid against the wall, out of view from the door. And then she ran off before he could stand and see her.

The third time was the time that they actually spoke. It was the time he was sketching a girl's face. Her eyes were shut, so Olivia assumed that the girl was asleep. When more details were added, it was shone that it was more that she was knocked out. The girl had marks all over her. Olivia started to get a bad feeling. He'd never drawn anything like this before. It was usually happy faces and flowers and sceneries. But never anything this morbid.

_Even this broken, she was beautiful._ She heard him think.

"Who?" Olivia's voice startled the boy. He hadn't known she was there.

He set down the pencil and sketch pad. Olivia walked into the room and sat down next to him.

"Me?" She asked.

He nodded.

"How could I look like that and still look beautiful?"

The smile that came across his face said it all but it didn't stop Olivia from hearing the thoughts that formed in his mind.

_No amount of bruises and cuts could hide it._

She smiled and stuck out her hand, "Olivia."

"Peter," He shook her hand, "Nice to finally meet you."


	3. Chapter 3

The Xavier school had organized a field trip for the kids to go to a museum. The adults thought it was a great idea. Other schools took their kids on field trips. And museums were the perfect places to go. The little kids were excited. Museums might as well be called funhouses because that's what they were. The museum was a funhouse and all of its contents were not to be touched.

For the older kids, however, they were less than impressed. One by one, or small group by small group, the teens would sneak off to other exhibits. Bobby, Rogue, John, and Olivia were feeling a bit hungry. So the four of them snuck off to the food court to get something to eat. Okay, it was Bobby, Rogue, and John's idea to sneak off. They had to practically pull Olivia away from the group.

Bobby told her that there was nothing to worry about. That everyone, all of the older kids, were sneaking off. Rogue told her that they wouldn't get caught and it would all be okay. That they weren't going to get into trouble. All John had to do was put his arm around her. Whatever he said after, which was she didn't need to be a scared, she didn't hear. A boy's arm was around her and that's all that mattered. Olivia agreed to sneak off with them.

And she tried to ignore John's rude thought comment about Peter. _And thank god she isn't bringing the meathead with us._

XMEN

It had been one of the few times Jean hadn't had a close eye on Olivia. Scott, however, had seen her wander off with the other three and he let her. He knew how hard it had been for the girl to adjust. She had made so much progress in the months she had been at the Xavier school. With the progress came a few friends. They couldn't, and wouldn't, go far, so what harm would come in letting the four wander off? They were good kids.

Well the majority of the group were good kids. Scott's and Jean's eyes met for a brief moment and they smiled at each other before Scott turned back around.

Jean's telepathy lately had been extremely off. The voices in her head were getting louder and it was getting harder to focus on things. The voices in the museum were getting to her. One voice triggered everyone's just to start pouring into her mind like a parade. She looked all around at the faces in front of her. It wasn't until Scott touched her that the voices were silenced.

"Jean? You okay?" Scott asked.

"Yeah," Jean sounded unconvincing, "Just a headache."

Scott was less than convinced. Ever since the events at Liberty Island, Jean had been… different. And it wasn't just the telepathy that was off. She couldn't focus enough to levitate a book off of a shelf or a chair off of the ground for more. She had nightmares that made their entire bedroom shake.

Jean said, "I keep feeling something terrible is going to happen." And saying that terrified Scott. He hated it when she got that way. He would never let anything happen to her. He loved her that much that he would protect her from everything and anything, everyone and anyone.

Storm had noticed the older kids' lack of presence. They were getting ready to move on to the next exhibit and they were nowhere to be found.

"Hey. Have you guys seen Bobby and Rogue?"

Jean looked around and couldn't see them anywhere. She also noticed Olivia was nowhere to be found. So she used her telepathy to look for them. She searched for their voices and ended up picking up on Olivia's.

"Something's going on in the food court." Jean told her.

XMEN

Something _was_ going on in the food court. John was a pyromaniac, sort of. His power was controlling fire. He couldn't create it, though, so he carried a lighter everywhere he went. And he was constantly flipping it open and shut, open and shut. The lighter had caught the attention of a couple boys from across the food court. One of them had a smoking issue and needed a cigarette.

He had seen the lighter in John's hand. He had also seen the two beautiful girls sitting with him and Bobby at their table. They, the smoker boy and his brother, now had an excuse to come over. Museums were smoking free zones but the boy didn't care. He thought it was cool and he was gonna show off in front of two beautiful girls.

The smoker boy and his brother made their way over to the table John was at. He had made eyes at Olivia and Rogue before looking at John. He'd asked for a light but John completely ignored him. And that's what started the real fun.

"My brother asked you a simple question." Non-smoker said.

"Why you being such a dick?" The smoker asked and his brother repeated him.

John smirked, "Because I can."

"Can I have a light?" Smother boy asked, again.

John flipped his lighter a couple of times. This made Olivia giggle a little bit. They boys were getting frustrated and it was throwing off their "game."

John looked at the boys, "Sorry. Can't help you out pal."

_He's gonna start some real problems_. Rogue thought and then said, "John, knock it off."

John and Bobby tiffed a little bit and Rogue looked up at the non-smoker boy. He wiggled his eyebrows at Rogue who quickly looked down and looked at Olivia. _Is he thinking what I think he's thinking?_ Olivia nodded her head and the two girls started giggling.

With all of the commotion, John wasn't paying too much attention to his light. And so the smoker boy reached across and pulled it out of his hands. That pissed John off, causing him to stand up and try to get it back. But the non-smoker boy had managed to stand in his way and size him up. So John waited and watched as the smoker lit up his cigarette. All he needed was one flame, one small flame.

The flame instantly caught the dude's arm of his jacket on fire. He fell back against a table and onto the ground. This worried and angered Bobby and being the kind guy that he was, he stood up and used his powers, ice, to put out the jacket fire. And that's when everything and everyone froze.

"Bobby, what did you do?" Rogue asked.

The four teens looked all around the food court. Olivia waved her hand in front of someone's face.

"I didn't do this." Bobby said.

"No, I did."

Through the crowd came Dr. Xavier, who looked less than pleased with the teens. It was more because they had snuck off than revealed their powers in public. Behind him was the rest of the kids on the field trip, Jean, Scott, and Storm. Xavier scolded them for showing off before being distracted by a news broadcast. The report had something to do with the president being attacked earlier that day.

"I think it's time to leave, Professor." Scott said.

"I think your right." Xavier agreed.


End file.
